Project Armageddon
by A Karswyll
Summary: Brigadier General J. O'Neill always knew the end of the world could come. He just never thought it would come from an Ancient project that wasn't even spelled right. (Marking Sam's Birthday on 29 December.)
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: Project Armageddon**  
Author**: A. Karswyll**  
Summary**: Brigadier General J. O'Neill always knew the end of the world could come. He just never thought it would come from an Ancient project that wasn't even spelled right. [Celebrating Sam's Birthday on 29 December.]**  
Rating**: T **Season**: SG1 Season 8, SGA Season 1 **  
Complete**: Yes **Date**: 29-October-2010 **Word Count**: 7,912**  
Author's Note:** A mature version is available at www. samandjack fanfics/viewstory. php?sid=4207 for those interested. This is a partner in outline, five chapters pages not exceeding three typed ages in length, to October's _Extortion_ although the stories are in no way related.**  
Posting schedule**: chapter one on 25 December, chapter two on 26 December, chapter three on 27 December, chapter four on 28 December, and chapter five on 29 December.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**Ancient Outpost, Antarctica  
Present Day**

Two kilometres under the surface of Antarctica's ice, Brigadier General Jack O'Neill sat with his elbows propped on the Plexiglas star map table in a room filled with computer paraphernalia and a whiteboard covered with 'gate glyphs. He was listening to Dr Daniel Jackson PhD tell him how the Ancients had left five and ten million years ago. The other individuals present in the computer-filled room were Doctors Elizabeth Weir and Rodney McKay.

"In their... flying city?" Jack stated dryly when Daniel stopped speaking for a moment. Jack knew he'd told the man to skip to the part where he started talking fast upon getting off the elevator with Major Sheppard but had to admit that Daniel was talking fast even for Daniel. And making less sense than usual.

"Well," Daniel mentally scrambled for an answer that would satisfy his friend, "keeping in mind this is the race that built the stargates. They did everything big."

"So, why did they leave?" Jack asked logically.

"Why'd they leave? Um, who knows? We know the Ancients on Earth were suffering from a plague. Um, maybe some of them were trying to start over, seeding life in a new galaxy. Maybe that's what Ancients do." Daniel fumbled through his answer before earnestly stressing his point again. "The point is; we know where they went."

"Pegasus," Jack repeated what Daniel had said in the beginning of the debriefing.

"Yes, it's—it's the name of a dwarf galaxy in the local group," Daniel detailed.

Jack shot the archaeologist an annoyed look, saying in the same dry tone that he'd first said 'flying city': "I know what Peg DIG is and where it is Daniel."

"Right," Daniel acknowledged the reminder of his friend's love of astronomy sheepishly. "Of course."

"You say Atlantis is in Pegasus?" Jack straightened from his seated position and beckoned a sergeant passing by the open doorway.

"Yes. Jack, what are you doing?" Daniel inquired in confusion. His confusion was shared by Weir and McKay.

The three people's confusion mounted as they listened to Jack ask the sergeant if the computers in the room had regular Internet connection. After being assured they did the general instructed the sergeant to connect to CNN's International YouTube channel. The sergeant did so and soon the page was loaded.

Directing the three doctorates in the room to the video currently playing on the homepage, Jack said pointedly, "In Pegasus you say?"

All three watched wide-eyed as the almost breathless reporter reported on the massive, gleaming silvery structure with spindle towers spearing towards the sky that had risen from the Atlantic Ocean's Horseshoe Seamounts just hours before. Scientists from European nations had already been on the structure and announced this dubbed 'alien city' was fabricated of an element never before found on Earth. Its already identified alien origins had alien conspirators and supporters of the ancient astronaut hypotheses, like Erich von Däniken, in seventh heaven as they loudly and triumphantly proclaimed the evidence of their claims.

"If Atlantis is in Pegasus," Jack repeated as he pointed a finger at the image of the alien snowflake-shaped structure floating on the Atlantic Ocean outside the Strait of Gibraltar in the broadcast. "Then what's that?"

. . .

Almost a full week later Daniel and the scientific individuals of Weir's proposed Atlantis Expedition could tell General O'Neill, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the President of the United States, and the nations of the International Oversight Advisory exactly what 'that' was.

Gadarus was a scientific research colony of the highly advanced Ancients. It was also half the size of Atlantus's—what the Greeks had dubbed Atlantis—schematics in Antarctica's outpost and significantly larger than the outpost buried in the ice.

They had learned the name after deciphering the lettered staircase—disputing the claims that the alien city was Plato's Atlantis—but there was little doubt about affiliation between them to the people of Earth. 'Gadarus' was remarkably similar to 'Gadeirus,' the name of Atlas's twin in Plato's dialogues. For those in the know about the Stargate Program, there had never been any doubt it belonged to the Ancients.

That it was a research colony had been learned through more herculean efforts on the parts of Lt Colonel Samantha Carter and Dr Rodney McKay to interface Earth technology with Ancient. While that had had success, the last purpose of the outpost and project that was still active, was grim news.

Daniel and the scientists were just glad that they were telling this news via videoconference and not delivering it to President Hayes and company directly!

"You mean to tell us," Richard Woolsey the IOA's liaison with SGC said forebodingly, "that Gadarus is going to bring about the end of the world?"

"_Not necessarily_," Daniel hastily said as he looked uncomfortable onscreen. "_I know that the Ancient project name 'Ahrmuhgedn,' when said fast sounds like the English 'Armageddon,' but that does not mean it means the end of the world_."

"Correct me if I am mistaken Doctor," Hayes interjected. "But did the scientists not say that this project has geo-tagged all humans on this planet and set their status to be: active, terminate, and exempt? And that with initialisation of the program, those people marked 'terminate' will be terminated someway by the program?"

"_That is correct Sir_," Colonel Carter spoke. "_But we are confident that we can halt the program before it 'goes online,' so to speak_."

"How much time before the program is fully powered?" Colonel Chekov inquired.

"_The program is currently at ninety-three percent Sir_," Carter replied, "_and Dr McKay and I agree that at the current rate it will be a minimum of thirteen days before it is at one hundred percent_."

Chekov inclined his head in acknowledgement.

"Correct me if I am mistaken, but is not this Project Ahrmuhgedn," Xiaoyi Shen the Chinese IOA representative was careful to pronounce the Ancient term, "an ethnic cleansing?"

"_No_," Daniel was quick to deny. "_While it seems to be 'ethnically' based on certain geographical concentrations of individuals marked for 'termination' like China, Africa and aboriginal groups, we have been able to determine positively that it is physical health—extreme poor health and malnutrition and things like a terminal illness—or insulin depended diabetes, HIV, etc—or genetic predisposition towards a terminal illness that is the reason for the status. China has such a high population that the numbers seem concentrated and unfortunately, malnutrition and HIV/AIDS are rampant in Africa as is diabetes in most aboriginal communities. Those Project Ahrmuhgedn has designated as being genetically propositioned to terminal illnesses, like cancers, seem evenly distributed throughout the world_."

"And those that are exempt are the ones with the genetic characteristic that Dr Beckett identified while working at the Antarctica outpost?" Andrew Chapman the British IOA representative affirmed.

"_Yes_," Daniel confirmed with a nod of his head. "_All other individuals are active and healthy in every way_."

"Considering what we have been told and the length of time that we have been discussing this," Jean La Pierre the French representative member of the IOA spoke up, "I move we have a recess."

The other IOA members, senators, and military officers present nodded their heads in agreement, reluctant to interrupt the current session but all needing to get up after hours of sitting. The individuals on Gadarus murmured their assent and soon the two conference rooms had cleared of all but two individuals, Jack O'Neill on Gadarus and George Hammond in the White House.

"Well Jack, you've been very quiet during this talk, what do you think?" Hammond asked casually.

Jack looked hesitant for a long time before his troubled eyes met Hammond's. "_I'm worried Sir_."

A touch concerned, George positioned himself closer to the video screen. "In what way?"

"_Something in my gut says we should be thinking worst case scenario. Not this blasé treatment the world is giving Gadarus and the fact that disclosure of the program is a current wait-and-see policy._"

"I see," Hammond took a steadying breath. He had never ignored his gut instincts, or those of his former second-in-command. "Worst case scenario, what do you recommend?"

"_Operation Adam Sir_."

Hammond sucked his breath in with shock.

If the evacuation operations were on the same scale as DEFCON, the evacuation performed during Apohpis' fleet invasion of military personal and contracted civilians with top-secret clearance to the Alpha Site was a DEFCON 5. Operation Adam was the equivalent of DEFCON 1 and involved shoving as quickly and as many people through the stargate as long as possible to as many planets as possible, secrecy be damned.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Gadarus, Atlantic Ocean  
Project Ahrmuhgedn Initiated,** **Day 1**

"Crap!" Sam Carter swore as her hand slapped down on the Ancient computer console in front of her; careful even in her anger to avoid hitting any of the keys of the keyboard.

Rodney McKay's exclamation was equally succinct and in French, "_Merde_!"

Both scientists glared banefully at the computer terminal they and other experts had been working at around the clock by working in shifts as they looked at the Ancient text that was flashing on screen. They did not really need Daniel or any other of the linguists present to translate for them to know they had failed.

Daniel translated it anyway. "Project Ahrmuhgedn Initiated. Sequence 1 Engaged."

Sam and Rodney switched from glaring at the computer console to glaring at Daniel as if he was personally responsible for their failure.

Daniel took a half step back and almost held up his hands in a warding gesture. "I'll ah—I'll go tell Jack."

"You do that," McKay grumbled beneath his breath as the archaeologist retreated from the room instead of paging the general over the headsets they all wore. He and Sam had been working at cracking the program for the past thirteen days but while they had managed a minimal interface, unlike the Antarctica outpost, they were dealing with not only gene-locked tech for everything and all the time, but severely password protected material as well. And each failure had unexpectedly chipped away at the maximum amount of time they had estimated they needed to crack this by accelerating the program.

When Daniel returned with Jack, the general did not need to hear any of the scientists in the room say anything. Their collective defeated air and Sam's resigned look as she met her commander's eyes said it all.

"Okay. You didn't manage to stop the program from initialising," Jack calmly looked at each scientist in turn. "Is there anything else you can still do?"

Sam and Rodney exchanged looks as _de facto_ leaders of the scientists and when they both looked back at the general, it was Sam who spoke. "We believe it is still possibility to stop it even though it has been initialised."

"Alright," Jack said in the same calm tone. "How long will it take?"

The scientists exchanged looks again and when Sam spoke again she confessed, "We don't know Sir."

"You don't know Carter?" Jack questioned quietly as he held her gaze.

"No Sir," Sam dropped her eyes from Jack's gaze in shame.

"Alright," Jack said again. "You do what you can. I will tell the President."

"Yes Sir," Sam responded dejectedly. Various other affirmations of the general's words were given by the other scientists of the room and they watched the BDU-geared man depart before slowly turning back to their tasks.

. . .

Across the Atlantic Ocean, Henry Hayes formed a steeple with his fingers against his lips as he listened in stunned silence to what his SGC general had to tell him. He had already sent out notification to the members of the JCS and special advisor Hammond, but they would not arrive for another fifteen minutes at the latest.

Hayes hated to contemplate the thought, but the only option might be Operation Adam considering the virtually unknown character but suspected global and catastrophic nature of the Ancient program. If this Project Ahrmuhgedn did as the world's top scientists said it did, Earth's population would be reduced from 6,512 billion to 350 million.

Making this—the Ancient's response to the plague that had devastated their population five to ten million years ago—the deadliest pandemic in human history. It so far outstripped Europe's 14th century's bubonic plague that it was almost not worth mentioning as a comparison.

As the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chairman and Vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Hammond appeared in the room Hayes continued to ponder what action he could take. Once the military men were all seated and present, Jack collectively informed them about what he had already told Hayes and presented the hastily prepared debriefing packet.

The scientists had failed to stop Gadarus's Project Ahrmuhgedn from initialising. Sequence 1, which was one of the more cryptic sequences of the project with it being divided into six sequences, was currently engaged and Gadarus was receiving massive amounts of subspace communiqués from space and locations around the globe.

"You mentioned around the world," CSAF General John P. Jumper queried. "What do you mean by that?"

"_Transmissions are being received from Ancient technology stored at Areas 51, 52, and 53 and other locations with noted mythological significance. For example, Glastonbury Tor in Britain, half a dozen Etruscan necropolises in Italy, the Giza Plateau in Egypt, and Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum in China_." Jack reported via teleconference naming some heritage sites they might be familiar with.

While there was no particular pattern to the locations indicated on the maps the generals had been provided with they could all see the clear affiliation with known ancient cultures influenced by the Ancients or Goa'ulds.

"_Currently the transmissions all detail spatial location. None of them seem to be commands of any sort_," Jack carried on. "_Considering the galactic distances most of the transmissions have traveled from once plotted out, the scientists surmise that they are all being sent via a subspace network_."

"So beyond mapping out this transmission origins, what are the scientists doing?" CNO Admiral Vern Clerk questioned.

"_Only a sergeant and linguist pair is needed to map the transmission locations considering the automated system they are being received on. The scientists are still attempting to stop Gadarus's program_."

CJCS General Richard B. Myers frowned at that. "Aren't there some individuals on the scientist team that we have identified as 'terminate' status?"

"_That is correct. Colonel Carter and five others_," Jack reported with a dispassionate air. There was no need to air to these men his rage at learning that because of Jolinar's possession and the unnatural Goa'uld protein the symbiote had left behind, Sam was one of the millions slated for death by the Ancients because they didn't clean up their garbage.

At that reminder, Myers was not the only man present to frown.

"Is that wise?" CMC General Michael W. Hagee asked disapprovingly, "Considering the colonel's invaluable contributions to the Stargate Program? Is she not on an evac list?"

"She is," Hammond said as he too frowned at the one-star general reporting to them.

"_She is_," Jack affirmed, "_and _Odyssey _is on standby to beam her and other such marked personnel onboard the moment the situation becomes critical_."

Hagee's expression relented marginally but his disapproval was still clear.

"_Prometheus_ and _Daedalus_," CSA General Peter J. Schoomaker named the other two ships of the USAF space fleet, "are on standby for similar circumstances?"

"Yes," Jumper answered. "The Russians have _Korolev_ so they will not be requesting spaceship assistance as other nations of the Gate Alliance Treaty may."

The frowns of the generals intensified at learning that before the discussion moved on.

"Can we still stop the program even if it has been initialised by nuking the colony?" VJCS General Peter Pace inquired.

"_No Sir_," Jack replied. "_The scientists have checked into that possibility and learned that the colony is equipped with a force shield. If the highly advanced shield is unable to handle a bombardment load, Gadarus is programmed to re-descend to the ocean floor_." There was no need to go into the fall out of the nuclear winter that would occur from the sheer armament needed to punch through Gadarus's force shield and how it would have an even worse effect on Earth than the genetic culling.

"Is a drone from the Antarctica outpost an option for a more surgical strike?" Clerk questioned.

"_No Sir, the outpost refuses to target Gadarus_."

"You've tried? How? You've been at Gadarus since returning from Antarctica," Schoomaker asked curiously.

"_Yes Sirs, we've tried with Major Sheppard in the control chair_," Jack reminded them of the discovery of Major John Sheppard as a strong gene carrier.

There was contemplative silence in the room as they all digested what they had been told.

"So, Mr President," Pace turned the generals' attention to their commander-in-chief, "what are your thoughts at the moment at what O'Neill has reported?"

"I think," Hayes said with firm conviction, "Operation Adam is the only reasonable course of action."

The six JCS stared at Hayes in astonishment.

"You can't be serious," Pace protested. "We haven't disclosed that we know anything about Gadarus and you just want to start **that **evac plan?"

"Up to this point of the Stargate program," Hayes began pensively, "the exemplary actions of the individuals of SGC have managed to avert the disaster staring myself, and my predecessors, in the face. But never before has the world **known** of aliens because of a worldwide publicised discovery that cannot be refuted by the scientific or academic communities."

Hayes made a point of holding the eyes of the seven generals present in the room for a few moments.

"On the advice of the SGC commander—who knows better than anyone in this room the dangers and potential dangers Earth faces—I have chosen to activate Operation Adam. The SGC soldiers may very well be able to stop this Armageddon but I want to actively try to save some of the millions that are slated to die."

"Sir—" Myers began to protest.

"Gentlemen," Hayes held up a hand to cut him off. "It is time to stop hiding our heads in the sand and take our place in the galaxy."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Gadarus, Atlantic Ocean  
Project Ahrmuhgedn Initiated,** **Day 2**

Sam rubbed tiredly at her face as she watched the second hand mark the end of twenty-four hours and the line of Ancient text on screen changed by one character. She was so familiar with Ancient numerals by now that she knew the screen now read:

PROJECT AHRMUHGEDN INITIATED. SEQUENCE 2 ENGAGED.

Twenty minutes later a voice cracked over the headsets they were all wearing, "_Colonel Carter report to the bridge. Repeat, Colonel Carter report to the bridge_."

Scrubbing a hand through her disordered blonde strands, she straightened from her sitting position with a crackle of her spine. Rolling her neck and shoulders, she left the room the scientists were camped in and trotted to the area that had been identified as Gadarus's bridge. Upon entering the spacious and artistically designed area, Sam's footsteps slowed at the grim-faced group that awaited her arrival.

"Sir?" Sam inquired as she made eye contact with her commander.

"We were just informed Colonel," Jack reported quietly, "that_ Prometheus_ and the three BC-304s report a golden haze formed around the planet at the Kármán line, six minutes after Armageddon's Sequence 2 was activated."

"Sir?" Sam prompted knowing in her gut there was more.

"As of that moment, none of the Asgard beaming technology installed on those ships is able to beam anything onto or off Earth. They tested it and are able to beam between ships and the space station."

"It isn't just some interference with the beam tech is it Sir?" Sam asked hesitantly but somehow already knew the answer from the general's sombre gaze.

"They have attempted to drop to within the mesosphere and are unable to penetrate the haze barrier."

"I see Sir," Sam said quietly. And she did see. All too clearly the situation she and other individuals of the programme on the terminate list were in now that their evacuation route had been cut off by the very program they were fighting to stop.

"Inform the marked members of your team, your plane departs in twenty minutes," Jack said resolutely as he began to turn back to the terminals he was working at.

"Sir!" Sam protested looking flustered when the general looked back at her with a disapproving air. "Sorry Sir, but I really think I can break this code."

Jack studied her measurably. "Do you really think so?"

Sam squared her shoulders. "Sir, yes Sir."

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose as he deliberated. "Alright Carter, I'll give you one more day. Tell your team that those who wish to leave now, their plane departs in twenty minutes. If they choose to stay, they will leave tomorrow at the same time."

"Yes Sir. Thank you Sir," Sam responded with enthusiasm.

"Thank me by stopping this Armageddon Colonel," Jack said dryly as he turned away again.

"Yes Sir," Sam responded firmly before departing the bridge. She would need every second of the twenty-four hours the general had given her and there was not a moment to waste.

. . .

Twenty-four hours later Sam and the other marked scientist, Dr Jamison, that had chosen to take the second plane stared resolutely at the line of Ancient text that had once again changed on the main computer screen.

PROJECT AHRMUHGEDN INITIATED. SEQUENCE 3 ENGAGED.

Shortly afterwards the general, dressed in a flight suit, appeared in the doorway of the room where all the scientists had been working for the past twenty-six days on Ahrmuhdegn's code.

Jack held up a hand to forestall any of Rodney's chattering in response to his appearance as he locked eyes with Sam.

"Time's up Carter, I'll see you and Dr Jamison on the plane in twenty," Jack said pointedly.

"Sir?" Sam looked puzzled at his flight suit.

"I'll be piloting the craft," Jack currently interpreted her look and tone of question. "I've been ordered to return to SGC. Plane Carter, twenty minutes. Don't be late."

Stiff-shouldered Sam gave a curt nod of her head in acknowledgment of his order. Only once the general had departed did she allow herself a moment to squeeze her eyes tight as guilt and failure churned in her stomach. She had failed, not just the people of Earth, but the general.

And that last failure seemed to weigh heavier on her than the first.

"Sam," Rodney spoke when she'd opened her eyes again and gave her a hesitant half-hearted smiled, "we'll break this. You'll see, and when you get back from the Alpha Site spa, you can laud my accomplishment."

Sam gave a weak smile at Rodney's attempt at levity that was just so him, but didn't voice her doubts. It had been **twenty-six days**. If she couldn't break this code… if she **and** Rodney couldn't break it… what chance was there?

Exchanging quiet goodbyes with Rodney and the other scientists that would remain, Sam went to go gather her things. After finding Daniel, she exchanged one last goodbye. Of all the farewells, the one exchanged with Daniel felt the most awkward as always before they had faced crises together, as a team

As the general had ordered, eight minutes later she and Dr Jamison were in the helicopter that was flying them to one of the multiple US Navy aircraft carriers encircling Gadarus. Once onboard the carrier, they were directed by its crew to the flight deck where a small passenger jet was already idling on the runway.

As the twenty-minute deadline rolled around Sam, Dr Jamison, and a few other of Weir's civilians tiredly trudged onboard the plane. Once on board, they were ordered to strap in and sleep during the nine-hour transatlantic flight. It was an order that Sam gratefully followed as she had reached her exhaustion threshold more than twenty-four hours ago.

. . .

Nine hours later Sam blinked sleepily up at the general's co-pilot, Captain Lutteral, as he shook her shoulder.

"Ma'am, General O'Neill would like you in the cockpit," Lutteral said _sotto voce_ as not to awake any other of the noisily sleeping civilian scientists and specialists.

"What?" Sam mumbled under her breath before her head cleared enough. "Alright Captain, I'll be right there." As Lutteral retreated back to the cockpit, Sam shook her head to clear it further and only fumbled once while unbuckling her seatbelt.

Standing she rolled her neck and shoulders and gave her head and body another shake before walking to the front of the airplane. Entering the cockpit the vision through the windows suddenly had Sam wide awake and staring.

"Sir?" Sam couldn't keep herself from instinctively inquiring as she stared at the profusion of buildings punctuated by massive, old growth trees the plane was circling.

"Welcome to Andrews Air Base, Colonel," Jack drawled sardonically. "We'll be landing just as soon as they clear a strip for us."

"Sir?" Sam repeated again.

"You know yesterday by the end of Sequence 2 that started at Gadarus and swept westward around the globe, all the world's water and air had been purified of pollutions?" Jack asked in a conversational tone.

"Yes Sir, if one equates Gadarus with Greenwich, which is the Prime Meridian, the Ancient program covers fifteen longitudes per hour of the traditional 360 longitude degrees matching the twenty-four main time zones on Earth—"

"Akh!" Jack cut her explanation off before she could even get started. "Well, today the land is doing a _Jumanji_."

"_Jumanji_ Sir?" Sam's brow crinkled as she attempted to figure out what the general was talking about. It was Daniel that occasionally used foreign words, not remembering all the time that just because he knew the word that did not mean his audience did as well.

"Yeah, that film where they play that freaky board game—the boy turns into a monkey and the house turns into a jungle inside? The point is Carter, all native vegetation and vegetation patterns are being restored and growing through everything. I am sure the tree-huggers are ecstatic," he finished sarcastically.

Sam felt it was prudent not to answer, or comment, on the general's last remark. "Why didn't you wake me Sir?"

"No point Carter," Jack replied as he checked instruments on the panel in front of himself, keeping a particular eye on the fuel level. "There was nothing you can do, and it did more good for you to sleep than worry about something you couldn't do squat about."

Sam eyed the fuel level herself. It was the reason they were attempting to land in Andrews and not flying to a still unaffected area westward, as they'd only been given enough fuel for the transatlantic flight as such flights usually were. "Sir, how much longer will it be for them to clear a strip?"

Jack peered through the window at the ground. Below a line of vegetation was being cleared underneath the chainsaws of base personal to the side of the former runways. The reason the runways weren't being cleared, was because of the ruptures in the tarmac from the trees sprouting up.

"Not much longer Carter," Jack reported. "Why don't you go wake up your geeks and make sure everyone is firmly strapped in and prepare them for a bumpy ride. Depending on how well they cut down those trees, we may lose the landing gear—if not the bottom of the plane—while setting down."

. . .

"Welcome to Andrews Sir," the colonel greeted crisply as soon as the general disembarked from the plane that Jack had managed to land in reasonably one piece.

"Colonel Forrest," Jack read the man's nametag with a touch of amusement. He cast his gaze down the hastily cleared runway at the scattered bits of landing gear that he had indeed lost and inquired drolly, "Invite your relatives for a visit did yah? Think they could have chosen somewhere else beside the runway to park?"

A look of first confusion and then surprise at the general's levity flashed across Colonel Forrest face before smoothing out again. "Ah… if you and your party would follow me Sir. I understand you are to check in with your superiors upon landing and then continue on your way."

"Yeah, about that," Jack fell into step beside Forrest as the colonel led the group through the undergrowth free, mature forest that now occupied Andrews base. "How exactly is that happening? Get on our way I mean, considering that highways are turning into forests as we speak and you lost your aircrafts to metal eating trees."

"The waterways are still free Sir. We hope to get your party far enough west to get ahead of the advancing forest so that you can secure a craft at Louisville to get you to Peterson."

"Speaking of the advancing forest," Jack said sombrely, "what is the casualty count so far?"

"Surprisingly low Sir. Most deaths are on overpasses, bridges, and roads and injuries from falling building parts."

"How is that possible?" Jamison put the question forward from behind Jack and Forrest as they reached the buildings.

"We are uncertain," Forrest answered as he ushered them indoors, "but it seems the higher concentration of people, the less amount of trees sprout."

"Makes sense Sir," Sam chimed in from behind as they edged past a tree growing in a hallway. "With the Ancient device being a eugenics program it is counterproductive for genetically approved humans to be killed while the program is preparing the environment."

"I'm glad it makes sense to someone, because it certainly doesn't to me." Jack muttered beneath his breath. "Carter, make sure you and your crew eat will you? Forrest, to the phone."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Kentucky Wilderness, USA  
Project Ahrmuhgedn Initiated,** **Day 5**

Their boats beached along the riverbank, the Gadarus group and personnel from Andrews were bedded down for the night. A short distance from the camp, Sam had settled her back against a conveniently located log as she gazed without seeing at the river's surface. She looked up from her letter writing when the general stood before her. Jack gave her a lopsided smile as he held out a steaming mug of coffee.

Sam set the pad of paper she'd been writing on aside to accept the mug and company as Jack settled himself beside her against the log.

"So..." Jack began after stretching out his long legs and settling down. "Now that spring's here," referring to the global spring that Sequence 4 had thrown the planet into even though the calendar said late fall, "looks like all we've got to worry about is lions, tigers, and bears."

Sam hid her soft smile behind her coffee mug at the general's humour and reference to his favourite film. She couldn't resist his light teasing as she quipped back, "Wolves, cougars, and bears Sir."

"Is that so?" Jack cocked his head at her.

"Yes Sir," Sam looked down into her coffee mug self-consciously at his expression.

"Pity," Jack murmured lowly and a comfortable silence descended between them.

Sam disturbed the peace between them hesitantly as the sun sunk behind the western horizon, "Sir?"

"Yes Carter?"

"I've been thinking..."

Jack snorted as he muttered, "When do you ever stop?"

"About the Ancient's eugenics program and they name they have for it, 'Project Ahrmuhgedn.'"

"Aptly named if misspelled," Jack quipped.

"Exactly Sir," Sam nodded sombrely and her agreement caught Jack off guard.

"What? What's exactly?"

"What's happening and I think that even though Daniel said that the name and our word Armageddon is just a coincidence, when has there ever really been a coincidence with aliens and our myths?"

"So you really thing this Ancient program will end the world?"

Sam shook her head. "No Sir. What's happening isn't really an end of the world. It's more like a renewal... or the beginning."

"Carter?" Jack cocked his scarred eyebrow quizzically at her.

"Just think Sir," Sam earnestly began explaining her theory, "the program occurs over six sequences that are twenty-four hours long. In other words, in six days. Sequence 1—I am not sure about the relation between light and darkness, but Sequence 2 purified Earth's air and water. Sequence 3 was vegetation with Sequence 4 being the seasons."

"You've lost me. What are you leading to Carter?"

"What religion is Armageddon from Sir?" Sam tried a different tactic.

"Christianity, the Bible."

"Yes Sir, and how does the Bible start?"

"Genesis," Jack said with a frown as he realised the connection that Sam was trying to present to him. "But God created the world in seven days."

"No Sir, He did not. He created it in six days. The seventh day He rested."

"Day one was light and darkness, day two was water and air, day three plants, day four seasons, this morning was birds," Jack listed the days off. His face scrunching up when he thought about the rainbow dust mote swarm-things they had witnessed this morning. Birds roosting in the trees were swarmed by the coloured motes and once covered and turned solid white, were gone once the swarmed dispersed. "So what's next?"

"Ah... actually Sir, today was fowl, fish, whales, and reptiles," Sam corrected.

"How do you know all that?"

Sam looked away uncomfortably at that question and the unspoken answer hovered in the air between them. He remembered all too well now the one other time they had discussed Christian theology, in particular the Ten Commandments on a world being poisoned by its sun that had poisoned the minds of men as well.

"So, fishes and birdies on day five—today," Jack remarked in a light voice as he attempted to smooth over the awkwardness between them. "And then people?"

"Yes Sir, and then animals and humans."

Jack frowned at that information as he sank into his own thoughts. His mental ponderings were disrupted so much by Carter's fidgeting beside him that he finally looked at her demandingly, "What else are you thinking about Carter?"

Sam stilled. "Sir?"

"You're fidgeting, what else do you have to say?" Jack was surprised to see a rosy blush creep from her cheeks, down her neck, and disappear beneath her collar. He fleetingly considered how far the blush went before ruthlessly crushing the thought. "Carter?" he prompted in a teasing tone.

"I ah… I was thinking about that sixth day Sir, and how long I have to live."

"Carter, don't say that—" Jack began to protest.

"Why not Sir?" Sam demanded slightly irritated. "We have to face facts Sir. We haven't been able to save ourselves and none of our allies are either. I am going to die in about twelve hours. How is saying it any different than being told you have months or weeks to live from cancer?"

Jack shifted uncomfortably as he lifted his shoulders in a shrugging motion. "It's just—I don't like thinking about it."

"I know Sir, neither do I. But it's something I have been thinking about. That and regrets."

"What regrets do you have Carter?"

"I'll regret dying," Sam lightly repeated the words he had said years ago in a cavern of ice. Earning a baneful look from the general who was not amused by her flippancy. "To be honest Sir, I regret..."

The baneful look on Jack's face faded as he looked at the return of her blush with interest. After some silence and the return of her fidgeting he finally cajoled, "Come on Carter, it can't be that bad."

"But it is Sir," Sam blurted out. "Bad I mean, because it's selfish and illegal although really I don't know why I'm thinking about the legality when I am going to be dead. But you won't be so it will still be illegal for you and that's why it will also be selfish for me—"

"Carter!" Jack barked as he held up a hand to forestall her stumbling stream of words.

Sam halted her rambling as she took a deep, shuddering breath. She set the coffee mug he had given her earlier to the side and shifted so that she was facing him fully. When she spoke quietly again, she was much more controlled. "I can't do what I want to do about my other regrets although I hope you'll deliver my letters about them," she indicated the pad of paper she'd been writing on, "but there is one selfish regret that I... you... that I might make a not regret."

"What is it? And you could never be selfish if you tried Carter."

"I said it's selfish because... because I won't be the one dealing... I won't have the memories after my death." Sam looked away to gather her resolve before she looked back and resolutely held his encouraging gaze. "Jack, will you make love with me?"

Jack physically froze as his face went blank at the earnestly begged question. His mind racing a mile a minute as he absorbed the words he never thought he would hear from Sam. Even at the end of the world.

Sam hesitated for a moment when he didn't respond before forging onward. "I know it's selfish because you would have the memories of it and my death, but this... I want this before I die."

Jack's mind and body reengaged at the same moment and he surged to his feet. His face a mask of shock as he looked down at the woman seated at his feet. "You... you... you want me to **what**! Geez, Carter—"

"Sorry Sir," Sam stammered as she rushed to her own feet and began to retreat. "I didn't mean to… I thought that—God, I don't know what I thought. Forget it Sir."

"Carter!" Jack barked after her retreating back.

Sam ignored the command to stop as she attempted to escape the mortification and embarrassment that coursed through her from the general's reaction. She choked back the sob that threatened as ruthlessly as she fought back tears.

"Damnit Carter!" Jack exploded behind her as he went after her. He managed to catch onto her wrist a couple yards further down the riverbank and now out of earshot of camp. "Sam," Jack yanked on her wrist, stopping her retreat and pulling her into his body.

"Sir!" Sam protested, struggling as she found herself firmly pressed against Jack's body and firmly enveloped in his arms.

"Damnit," Jack repeated as he countered her relatively feeble struggles as she was far more intent on getting away from him than hurting him for her freedom. "Samantha, listen to me!"

The use of her full name halted her struggles in instant surprise and Sam looked up at him through her threatening tears.

"Samantha," Jack repeated his voice now a low croon. The hand not around her wrist and no longer needed to control her struggles, lifted to cup a cheek while his thumb brushed at a tear that trembled in the corner of her eye.

For one eternal moment their eyes held and spoke with each other.

Then slowly, deliberately so that she could avoid him if she wished, Jack lowered his head and as his lips hovered over hers breathed her name in a caress, "Samantha."

Sam's lips parted in response as a sensual shiver raced down her spine. Their mouths met softly and generously in an expression of love that had never been explicitly said between them, but demonstrated in so many ways.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**Kentucky Wilderness, USA  
Project Ahrmuhgedn Initiated,** **Day 6**

In the early hours of the approaching dawn Jack savoured the weight of Sam asleep on his chest as he stared at the stars visible through the new leafed branches overhead. After their lovemaking they had curled together and all too soon for his liking, Sam's breathing had settled into the rhythms of sleep. And while she slept he remained awake, counting the cost of his soul that her death and these memories would bring to him. Praying for a miracle that the odds of the universe told him would not come.

To have loved and known… or never to have loved or known… It was tearing him apart. The hours of deliberation had at least presented him with one irrefutable fact. He could never have refused her last request. No matter the cost to himself.

As the sky began to lighten almost imperceptibly, Jack debated whether to awaken her and make one last loving memory for himself or leave her as she was. Asleep in his arms and unknown of the death that came with dawn's light.

In the end, time took the decision from him.

A rainbow swarm of lights coalesced into the sleeping woman that slept in his embrace. Jack tightened his arms futilely around her to hold him to her as he pressed his lips to the crown of her head for his last kiss goodbye.

As the swarm of lights intensified within Sam's body, Jack resolutely kept his eyes open to watch. Like with the birds the lights had consumed yesterday, the lights filled her form until she seemed to be an ethereal being of white light. Then just as he waited the agonizing heartbeats for the swarm to disperse and Sam vanish, the solid white light strangely flashed through the colours of the rainbow.

Once. Twice.

Finally, the rainbow colours seemed to concentrate and swirl around her centre. Then the white light returned to coloured motes and dispersed. Leaving an alive Sam in his arms. A woman who was very much now awake and wide-eyed.

For a heartbeat blue eyes stared into brown ones before Sam rolled onto her back as her hands flew to cover her abdomen—where the lights had swirled seconds before.

Jack's own hand reached up to cover her own and the precious life that he knew now rested within—just has he had known when his firstborn had been conceived—and knew that a miracle had been granted.

And neither could stop the tears of relief and thanksgiving of life and love as they curled together.

. . .

An ocean away Daniel looked morosely at the screen he had positioned his chair in front of as he waited out his vigil of Sam's biometric data. Sequence 6 had been engaged hours ago and while he didn't know Sam's current location—except that she wasn't off-world, wasn't **safe**—he had roughly calculated her time of death.

He took a swig of his cooled coffee and wished it was something stronger. To think he'd been so ecstatic about finally locating the Lost City and then the discovery of this Ancient colony ship on Earth by the world. Earth would finally know the truth of its history! God, what a fool he'd been!

Daniel jerked from his musings when a throat was cleared behind him. Turning his head, the archaeologist blinked behind his glasses at the physicist that stood in the doorway behind him.

"Dr McKay," Daniel greeted.

"Dr Jackson," Rodney returned, his eyes going to the screen Daniel had been staring at so morosely after his presence had been acknowledged. "That's Sam's data isn't it?"

Daniel looked back at the lines of Ancient text. "Yes."

"Don't you think it's a little morbid to be watching it, considering she's…?" Rodney couldn't bring himself to say it.

"No different than sitting beside a hospital bed," Daniel retorted. Stand witness was all he could do now. He would do it as faithfully as they had done when he'd been dying of radiation poisoning. Hearing a chair scrape across the floor Daniel turned his head, surprised to see Rodney drag a chair next to his.

Rodney saw Daniel's look and lifted his shoulders in a shrug as he settled into his seat. Without any more words the two men returned to watching the screen.

Time passed.

Each second bringing Daniel and Rodney agonisingly closer to the moment when the section of text of Sam's biometric data that read 'Terminate' in red would change to black and read 'Terminated.'

Then the moment came. Both men made soft noises of distress when the red text flashed onscreen. They started when a second window popped open and Ancient writing began filling it. Daniel peered at the script in surprise and confusion as he read.

ACTIVE GENE REGISTERED. CONCEPTION COMPLETE. REDELIBERATE STATUS.  
DELIBERATING...  
DELIBERATING...  
STATUS CHANGED. ENSURE IMPLANTATION OF FERTILISED ZYGOTE.

Daniel nearly hyperventilated as he suddenly understood what was happening—what **had** happened.

Rodney couldn't read the text, but he could see that instead of changing to black, the section of text that marked Sam's status suddenly changed to green. Green was good. Green was **wonderful**. "Jackson?" Rodney promoted with rising excitement.

Daniel rose from his chair so fast that he sent it and his mug of coffee flying as he let out a triumphant whoop. "She's alive, she's going to live. Oh God. God bless Jack!"

Rodney squawked as he found himself lifted from his chair as he was seized in an enormous hug that proceeded to crush the air from him. "Yes, yes. She's alive. That's good. But breathing is too. I need to breathe Jackson!"

Still giddy with joy Daniel released the winded physicist who collapsed back onto his chair. Daniel nearly bounced from the room exclaiming, "I have to go tell Weir and the others."

Rodney waved feebly at the retreating man as he looked back at Sam's biometric data. "Thank God," he said with heartfelt sincerity as he looked again at the green line of text. Suddenly, his face screwed up as he remembered one of the things Daniel had been shouting so excitedly. "God bless Jack? What sort of exclamation is that?"

. . .

"It don't know whether to bless you or curse you Jack," Henry Hayes, President of the United States of America and Councillor of the now United Earth Sphere spoke to the grey-haired general at his side seven months after the end of Earth's Armageddon.

"Sir?" Jack cast a quizzical look at his commander-in-chief, not understanding what had prompted that remark. The two men were watching crews with salvaged machinery and borrowed ally alien tech in conjunction with _Odyssey_ clear the trees that had grown up in the White House. While the presidential residence was an important emblem to the American people Hayes had declared that the clearing of hospitals, other aid facilities, and military bases around the world had greater priority than his house.

Henry gestured to the seven month pregnant BC-304's ground coordinator as she directed the clearing crew and beam work. As Jack's eyes went back to the woman, his thumb unconsciously rubbed the metal band on his left hand as he warmly looked at the cherished woman and the precious child she carried within.

"I think Sir," Jack said sincerely, "considering what I could have lost otherwise; I will accept the cursing but consider it a blessing."

"Well put," Henry approved. He suspected that he would be the only president that would be thankful that one of his general's had violated military frat regulations and impregnated a subordinate. It was also unlikely that such a future violation would quite literally save the subordinate's life.

Some sticks-in-the-mud would have loved to court-martial the two officers but the AF had wisely decided not to pursue that course. Earth was in crisis and they needed those two officers as never before.

And with so many million dead… each new child was a treasure. And even as they mourned those lost Earth was rebuilding stronger and more united than it had ever been, bound together by the global tragedy. Armageddon had come, but the people of Earth had survived and in time would thrive again.

-FINISHED


End file.
